Learning To Dance
by xLostInTheSun
Summary: She's taken quite a trip down memory lane, tonight. She usually hates this (even more than she hates dancing), because her past is even worse than her present, but it's different this time. It made her realise that something she's been suspecting for weeks now is actually true; she really does like Sheldon Cooper.


**A/N: Well, here is a new Shamy one-shot. I'm not sure how I feel about this one. I liked the idea but can't help thinking it was poorly executed. I still enjoyed writing it, so I hope you'll enjoy reading it in spite of its flaws!**

* * *

_Dance lessons. It's something Amy's always hated._

_As a child, she used to find them too long and tedious. She had more important things to do than put on a pair of shoes way too short for her and try not to step on her partner's feet. She tried to convince her mother to cancel her subscription to the lessons more than once, but she would never listen to her and Amy had to wait until she turned thirteen years old and broke her ankle to finally be allowed to ditch them._

_To this day, Amy still uses the phrase "learning to dance" to refer to things she hates and yet is forced to do._

**ooo**

Amy feels herself blushing when Sheldon takes her hand in his.

"Come and dance", he says abruptly, and she knows it's mostly because he wants Penny to shut up but she can't help smiling, even if a little.

Penny convinced Sheldon that he had to dance with one of them if he really wanted to be a Texan gentleman but Bernadette refused to be his partner – "I'm engaged to your friend, Sheldon" – and Penny just kept going on and on about how she _really _doubts he's a good dancer.

Amy is his last choice, but she doesn't mind as much as she probably should.

**ooo**

_The first time she steps into her salsa class, she feels like crying. She spots Geraldine Winkover at the back of the room and already knows this class is going to be a nightmare. She turns to her mother, she wants to beg, "Please Mummy, I don't want to" but her mother is gone already. Amy stands in the doorway awkwardly, seven years old and already broken._

_It's the first time in her life she has no idea what she's supposed to do._

_A few minutes later, she's still rooted to her spot when a little boy comes up to her._

"_Hi" he says. "I'm Henry. I'm new here; do you know how these classes usually are?"_

_Amy croaks that she's new too, and Henry comments that it's great._

"_We can be friends, if you want."_

_She's not sure. Amy doesn't have friends. She doesn't like other people, and they don't like her back. It's always been like that, and she doesn't mind it. She's way too focused on becoming someone to actually accept to hang out with anyone._

_But Henry's nice and she did see the girl that makes school a nightmare for her. She glances in Geraldine's direction before smiling to Henry._

"_Yeah, sure."_

_Three hours later, she leaves her first dance lesson with tears in her eyes. Three minutes with Geraldine and Henry called Amy "a big, fat cow". _

_She trusted someone else when she knew she really shouldn't have. _

**ooo**

Sheldon smells really good and Amy feels her heart beating a bit faster when they reach the center of the dance floor. Her hand is still in his and she doesn't know if he even realizes he's touching her.

She's found herself thinking about him more and more, these days. She kind of wonders why most of the time, but tonight, she knows. Maybe it's the alcohol that helps her see things clearer.

She likes him. Amy Farrah Fowler actually likes someone. And she's not half as scared as she thought she'd be.

**ooo**

_She's fourteen and wants nothing more than to be left alone. Coming here was a mistake, had been one from the start, and Amy wonders why she even thought it would be a good idea._

"_You did get an invitation", explains this little nagging voice she often hears in her mind._

_And it's true. She did get an invitation. Amy Farrah Fowler has been invited to Fanny Keller's birthday party. _

_When she first opened the letter Fanny had given to her before their chemistry class, Amy had not understood. Fanny isn't her friend. Granted, she is much better with her than a lot of other people in their class – Fanny is not one of those who frequently beat Amy up – but they are not friends. _

_Amy had considered not going, at first. But then she remembered Fanny was one of the least annoying ones and she thought she should give it a try._

_And she really should have known it would end up badly._

_There had been music and couples dancing together to the rhythms of catchy pop songs and after half an hour of standing awkwardly on her own, Amy had decided to ask one of the boys for a dance. She had walked up to one of them and his answer had cut her._

"_Oh my God, why would I want to dance with you?"_

_His friends had laughed, and soon after that, every single person present in the room had joined in._

_She had escaped to the garden, crying. She's still here, ten minutes later, trying to calm her breath. Fanny has tried to comfort her but Amy sent her away. As soon as her breathing is back to normal, she's going to go home._

**ooo**

Amy smiles a bit awkwardly to Sheldon as he asks if she knows how to dance.

"I had lessons as a child. They were a nightmare."

He smiles back, and she feels herself melting a little.

"Once more, we're proven to be a perfect match, Amy Farrah Fowler. Even our childhoods were the same."

He then proceeds to tell her about an anecdote from his Texan childhood but she doesn't really hear him. She's still stuck on the "perfect match", lost in his blue eyes, and she finds that she really does agree.

**ooo**

_Tonight is prom night. Sitting at her window, Amy can see her neighbour getting ready across the street. Parents proudly smiling to their perfect daughter, her beautiful blond hair pinned in an elegant bun and her thin, athletic body draped in a gorgeous red and black fabric. Her boyfriend arrives a few minutes later and he looks dreamy, clad in a black suit that makes him look a lot more serious than he really is. _

_The daughter embraces him before turning to her smiling parents. Amy can't hear them, but she's sure they're wishing her a good night. She sees her classmates leaving the house only a moment later._

_Amy gets up from her chair by the window, turns off the light and crawls into bed. Tonight, she won't be dancing, for no one ever wants to dance with Amy Farrah Fowler._

**ooo**

Amy has to admit it: the music is catchy and she really could lose herself in the rhythms. Unfortunately, she's way too aware of Sheldon's presence, and she can't really get free, not as much as she should, not as much as she'd like.

Because she's honestly been seeing Sheldon as more than a friend for a bit too long, now. It was okay when they were only communicating through the Internet and text messages, but seeing him in person on a regular basis changed her. She remembers informing Sheldon on the day they first met that all forms of physical contacts were "off the table", but these days, she'd give anything for a little intimacy with him.

She's not even sure why. Everything is a bit of a blur in her mind, as well as before her eyes – she really shouldn't have drunk so much.

**ooo**

_She's 20 and she should not have drunk that much, especially as it's her first party. She's a college student, now. It means a new town, new people and, maybe, a chance at a new life._

_She's really counting on it, anyway. Tonight, she somehow ended up at a fraternity party and she tried to erase her self-consciousness. She found out that alcohol does just that, so there she is, so drunk she can't see straight, but still very much alone._

_Amy decides it's time to change that, and she marches up to that cute guy she's seen in one of her classes. She opens her mouth to ask if he wants to dance, but instead, she just throws up on his shoes._

_She passes out after that, and when she wakes up, she's dressed in two coats that don't belong to her._

_She never goes back to any party after that._

**ooo**

At some point, she forgets to be self-conscious. She doesn't think it's the alcohol that makes her lose her inhibitions – or maybe it is, who is she to know? – she just likes Sheldon's impressed look when she does a beautiful move.

Besides, she probably will never have the chance to dance with Sheldon after that, so she might as well try and make the most of this night.

Not that she wouldn't want to dance with him again, because in spite of her hatred for dancing, she realises she likes it much better tonight.

Maybe it's the alcohol. Maybe it's her partner.

**ooo**

_She knows it's wrong to impose such a choice on someone who is obviously in distress, and yet she does it. Because she's herself in distress, as hard as it is to admit it. She's 22 and she's never kissed anyone; she won't let her chance go without a fight._

_Bradley is one of her mother's friends' son. They've been set up together for the night by mothers desperate for grandchildren – Bradley is obviously a homosexual. He's not cute but he's intelligent, even if nowhere near Amy, and, well, he's not into girls, but at this point, it's only a detail for her. _

"_I'll give you back your insulin if you kiss me", she repeats, and Bradley groans out of frustration before crashing his mouth to hers._

_It's nowhere near romantic and Amy doesn't feel anything – no butterfly in her stomach, no feeling of being invincible, no head spinning out of happiness. The magazines were lying._

_Bradley then grabs his insulin and stalks off, muttering "I'm never going dancing with a girl ever again. Mom has to accept me the way I am."_

**ooo**

Amy can feel Sheldon's hand on the small of her back to prevent her from falling in the stairs and she blushes furiously. Her head is spinning, _I'm going back to my apartment and Sheldon is following me_. Amy's been to far too many dances with boys before, and they never ended well. It's the first time she brings someone home after going out with him. And while tonight was not technically a date, it's still better than everything she ever hoped for, because this time, she actually _likes _the man.

And she's drunk, quite a lot, enough to need to be escorted back to her apartment, but not enough to realise that Sheldon following her actually means a lot, because he's Sheldon and he doesn't normally care for people. He should have shared a cab to go home with Penny, but he insisted in going out of his way to help Amy.

Her head is spinning, and she's not sure if it's because of the alcohol, or because she's still dizzy from all the dancing, or because of the realisation that Sheldon actually cares for her.

It's probably all of that, and maybe some more. She doesn't know. She can't think straight. She doesn't mind.

**ooo**

"_You know, I've thought about it and realised that maybe you're right."_

_Amy gives her mother an interrogating look._

"_Maybe you're meant to be single."_

"_I'm dancing with my mother at my cousin's wedding. Of course I'm meant to be single."_

_Not that Amy didn't try to be more normal. But romance eludes her, and maybe it's for the best. She's a great mind. She doesn't care for love._

"_I won't force you to date anymore."_

_Amy doesn't say anything. Maybe she should thank her mother, but it's a decision that was long overdue, and she doesn't deserve any "thank you"._

"_I'm sorry it didn't work out. I would have loved grandchildren."_

_Amy has to refrain herself from groaning. There it is. The guilt trip. She should have known it was coming._

"_Look, the website matched me with someone. I told him I'd meet him next week. I'm still going, and if it leads to somewhere, then great. If not, you get off my back forever."_

_Her mother thinks for a few seconds before nodding her approval._

"_What's his name?"_

"_Sheldon Something? Can't remember his last name – the first is too weird."_

_Not that it matters anyway. She's not going to marry him. She won't even see him more than once – she never does. _

**ooo**

As she pours them two glasses of Yoo Hoo – spilling half of it on her kitchen table – Amy thinks back on this conversation she had with her mother a few months ago. She's taken quite a trip down memory lane, tonight. She usually hates this (even more than she hates dancing), because her past is even worse than her present, but it's different this time. It made her realise that something she's been suspecting for weeks now is actually true; she does like Sheldon Cooper.

It's probably time to do something about it. She's intoxicated, after all. Crazy and bold behaviour is to be expected. It's not her fault, none of it. Blame it on the alcohol and Sheldon's sex appeal and brilliant mind.

When she comes back from the kitchen and settles their glasses on the table by the couch, she gives him some advice on how to deal with Leonard's new girlfriend, but she's really only trying to muster the courage to do something about her growing feelings for Sheldon.

And suddenly it's there, the urge to kiss him, so she does. It's nothing like her first – and last – kiss. It's sweet and tender and everything she ever wanted a kiss to be. This time, she does feel the butterflies in her stomach and she catches herself thinking that she'd like to do it again, if she weren't so sick.

And as she rushes to the bathroom and spends the next forty minutes vomiting like she never did before, she understands something: Sheldon changed her in ways she never thought would ever be possible. For the second time in her life, she doesn't know what to do. And while she always hated the first thing that left her puzzled – _dance lessons _– she realises that this time, she doesn't mind. Sheldon is someone special, and getting him to do something about this growing attraction is not going to be easy.

But it's okay. She's willing to learn his dance.

* * *

**A/N: Thanks a lot for reading this! Don't hesitate to write what you've thought about it in the review box :)**

** I also wish you all a very happy new year. May it be filled with tons of Shamy goodness!**


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